Commentary: Nebraska makes Big Ten conference more appealing

November 10, 2012

If you took a vote of Penn State fans - timely since we're coming out of election week - chances are the Big Ten's approval rating, even now in the Nittany Lions' 20th season, would not carry a majority.

(And based on the events of the previous year, you can be sure the feeling is mutual.)

There are presumably 50 percent of you who would still prefer a driveable Eastern schedule sprinkled with the glamour intersectional games of yesteryear. Or, further dreaming given that Pitt and Syracuse are now members and Notre Dame is partially so, perhaps eventual entry into the ACC would be more appealing.

But that's a discussion for another day.

What isn't debatable is the fact that one of the best things that could have happened to Penn State since the Lions' move to the Big Ten has been Nebraska's entry into the conference.

The two schools have much in common as the two newest members of the historic league that picks its members carefully - two in 60-plus years - Penn State as the eastern-most representative and Nebraska fulfilling the western role.

Joe Paterno and Tom Osborne were giants who stayed their entire careers in one place.

The programs have won a combined seven national titles with one of them, the Cornhuskers' crown of 1994, forever stuck in the Lions' craw.

Nebraska leads the series, 7-6, and most of the games have been extremely meaningful. A quick highlight recap:

1981: The Lions won, 30-24, in Lincoln - still one of the better road wins in their history as Todd Blackledge entrenched himself as the starting quarterback.

1982: Penn State won, 27-24, on a late controversial call at Beaver Stadium that served as a springboard to the Lions' first national title and capped a 2-2 split of the four-game series.

1983: Nebraska, still smarting from its only loss a year earlier, humbled a Lion team that was still hung over from finally being crowned No. 1. Result: 44-6 in the Kickoff Classic.

2002: After a regular-season interruption of 20 years, Nebraska arrived to one of the most electric atmosphere in Beaver Stadium history and the Nits, at night, buried Frank Solich's Huskers, 40-7.

2011: A mere three days after the Board of Trustees fired Joe Paterno, and a week following the arrest of Jerry Sandusky on horrific charges that would ultimately land him in prison for the rest of his life, Nebraska came to Beaver Stadium and won, 17-14, in Tom Bradley's interim-coaching debut. The game was a sidelight to the feeling of grief and unity felt in the stands.

2012: PSU is 6-3. Nebraska is 7-2. Both teams have been good but not great. Nebraska has a chance to go to its first Rose Bowl as a Big Ten member; Penn State, ineligible for a bowl, could deliver its best win in a season that has already surpassed expectations in Bill O'Brien's first year.

O'Brien has never been to Nebraska, but he was already informed of the classy reception he's likely to receive. And he knows Memorial Stadium will be fully: It has been since 1962.

"From what I hear, they have respectful fans," he said.

That's true. Nebraska fans traditionally don't boo the visitor. Paterno liked to tell the story of his team receiving a standing ovation as it left the field following a victory in 1981, and on the Lions' last trip to Lincoln, in 2003, I can recall Cornhusker fans lining the path to the visitors' dressing room and cheering Penn State's players.

Now, in the wake of the Sandusky scandal, perhaps that could change. A few Iowa fans dressed up in prison grab with Sandusky's name on their backs, but if that happens, it would be a radical departure from Nebraska's past.

Before Galen Hall was Penn State's offensive coordinator, a tenure that ended last year, he spent 18 years in the same capacity at Oklahoma - when the Sooners and Huskers were Big 8 rivals and often playing for a high-stakes Thanksgiving week game with a berth in the Orange Bowl and/or national title on the line.

"Nebraska has always had great fans," Hall said earlier this week. "They were very nice to our [Oklahoma] fans, very nice to our players, very football-knowledgeable and very much behind their own team but a very good crowd.

"Nebraska fans are very classy and very hospitable."

It's the kind of atmosphere in which college football should be played and the kind that frankly has been lost at times at some of the mega-stadiums, including Penn State, where crowd control has been an issue.

"Nebraska-Penn State, that's what college football is all about," O'Brien said. "You have two big-time college football programs that have two good coaching staffs and a lot of good players. Hopefully, it's fun."